Recently, I’ve been feeling a little spoilt by the number of top-notch new music releases being announced, and here’s another that should be at the top of your lists – When I’m Called is the forthcoming new album from singer, guitarist, and folk music interpreter Jake Xerxes Fussell. When I’m Called will also be his debut for Fat Possum, due for release on July 12th and supported by an extensive tour of North America, the UK, and Europe (details below).
Fussell has a stellar lineup supporting him on this release, which is described as his richest work to date. After hearing his first single below, I can believe it. When I’m Called is produced by James Elkington, mixed by Tucker Martine, and features contributions from Elkington (guitar, piano, dobro, synth, organ, pedal steel, mandola, harmonica, arrangements), Blake Mills (guitar), Joan Shelley (vocals), Ben Whiteley (bass), Joe Westerlund (drums, percussion), Robin Holcomb (vocals), Anna Jacobson (horns), Jean Cook (strings), and Hunter Diamond (woodwinds).
The thing I love most about his lead single, Going to Georgia, is that, despite the number of players involved, Fussell’s gentle, laid-back trademark guitar style permeates the whole track. Everyone, from Westerlund’s percussion to Whiteley’s bass, extends that vibe, adding to that whole relaxed aesthetic; it’s truly heavenly.
The notes for this release share that while recognized for his compelling transliterations of traditional music, Fussell took an atypical approach to the material on When I’m Called, often constructing the music from the ground up, before considering what existing source material could be applied to the song. Though his affection for ballads spans mountainous Appalachian tunes to sea shanties and everything in between, Fussell has found himself particularly close to field recordings made in the 1960s and ’70s by painter, musician, and folklorist Art Rosenbaum—one of Fussell’s beloved late mentors, who died in September 2022 (Rosenbaum did the coverart for Fussell’s 2022 release Good and Green Again). ‘Going to Georgia’ is one such tune.
“I learned the traditional song ‘Going to Georgia’ from a few different places so my version is something of a collage”, explains Fussell. “There are a number of variants out there. Ralph Stanley played a version of it, as did the great song collector and revivalist/interpreter Paul Clayton. My main source was an early 1980s field recording of The Eller Family of Hiawassee, Georgia, brought to us by artist-documentarians Art and Margo Rosenbaum via their wonderful Folkways anthology Folk Visions & Voices: Traditional Music and Song in Northern Georgia.”
It’s nice to read the detail and backstory on album releases like this as it gives you a greater appreciation of not just how it came to be but how music is passed on, something Fussell touched on in our interview with him back in 2015:
Extract from the interview (by Glenn Kimpton):
Jake’s upbringing in Georgia was also heavily influenced by music, so much so that it became his ingredient, but again, it was of the variety that was absorbed directly into the bloodstream rather than through any rose-tinted specs. “I guess the idea of playing music wasn’t some kind of abstract far away concept to me,” he explains. “Because there were everyday musicians around when I grew up that weren’t so famous, but were really fucking good.” It’s very much a learning-on-the-job mentality that has informed this player, but it’s an environment he believes is less common these days. “I think for some younger people growing up a musician is viewed as some kind of star, much like a film actor,” he ventures, “but I never really had that. [In Georgia] there were people doing music who were carpenters or office workers by day, but then at night time they could damn sure play the fiddle. So, I knew that music was something tangible and to get good at it you had to work really hard. I was very fortunate and privileged in that I could approach these guys personally; if I wanted to learn how to finger-pick a song, I could sit there and watch Precious Bryant play it and learn it from her. It just wasn’t so mediated; I guess many people’s experience of music is through records, which can be quite an insular process. I listened to a lot, but I also knew people who I could learn directly from.”
Later, when Glenn talks of the pains of looking for these old songs and tunes and, in a way, brings them back to life, Fussell replies, “Well, you know, I don’t necessarily think of what I do as keeping songs alive,” he frowns after a pause spent scratching his chin. “I don’t think of music as either alive or dead, but I do like to look for things that are a little obscure, or underappreciated and bring those to light in my own way in whatever little arena I have.” If this sounds like a slightly terse answer, then don’t be fooled; the impression is of a musician who is very careful with the artefacts he considers and very modest about his contribution. “People have said that to me about keeping them alive, but songs don’t have lives really, although I do I think they have very curious existences of their own outside and beyond me and us. I don’t know man; I’m going off on a tangent!” He sits back, adjusts the cap again and composes an answer. “I think it’s important to find something that I really like and stick with that. The song has to strike me emotionally before I play it, and for this album, I had a certain amount of songs in mind that I really liked.” As simple as that then.
The release notes for ‘When I’m Called’ share that, in tandem to his relationship to Rosenbaum, Fussell traces his love of post-war field recordings to his upbringing by song-collecting folklorist parents, whose enthusiasm for their itinerant work surrounded their son in many different musics for as long as he can remember. That early-life intensive had a profound impact on Fussell’s sense of time around music that, too often, gets treated as a museum piece. “When I was getting really deep into traditional music as a teenager, I tended to see it more in a continuum, like, ‘This is all tied into an ongoing world,’” he says. In the ringing warmth of When I’m Called, Fussell honors traditions while carrying them into a new generation’s field of vision, deepening his own understanding of his part in the “ongoing world.” He’s charted his own terrain of growth and change without any hurry toward a destination, and in his guitar-guided meditations, Fussell plucks at the threads that keep humanity knotted together.
In support of When I’m Called, Fussell will kick off a North American tour next month and continue on through the summer with shows in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Baltimore, and more. Tickets for all shows go on-sale Friday at 10am local time here.
When I’m Called Tracklist
- Andy
- Cuckoo!
- Leaving Here, Don’t Know Where I’m Going
- Feeing Day
- When I’m Called
- One Morning In May
- Gone To Hilo
- Who Killed Poor Robin?
- Going To Georgia
Jake Xerxes Fussell Tour Dates
Thu. May 16 – Charlotte, NC @ The Evening Muse
Fri. May 17 – Asheville, NC @ The Outpost
Sat. May 18 – Talbotton, GA @ Talbotton Fest
Sun. May 19 – Birmingham, AL @ Saturn
Fri. June 21 – Roanoke, VA @ Spot on Kirk
Sat. June 22 – Richmond, VA @ Richmond Music Hall
Sun. June 23 – Mt. Solon, VA @ Red Wing Roots Festival
Tue. June 25 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery
Thu. June 27 – New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge ~
Fri. June 28 – Catskill, NY @ Avalon Lounge ~
Sat. June 29 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
Tue. July 16 – San Diego @ The Casbah *
Wed. July 17 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Barnsdall Gallery *
Thu. July 18 – San Luis Obispo, CA @ Brisol’s Cider House *
Fri. July 19 – Felton, CA @ Felton Music Hall *
Sat. July 20 -San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel *
Sun. July 21 – Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s *
Tue. July 23 – Bend, OR @ Volcanic Pub *
Wed. July 24 -Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios *
Thu. July 25 – Seattle, WA @ Tractor Tavern *
Fri. July 26 – Bellingham, WA @ Wild Buffalo *
Sat. July 27 – Vancouver, BC @ Wise Hall *
Fri. Aug. 30 – London, UK @ Lafayette
Sat. Aug. 31 – Lewes, UK @ Con Club Lewes nr Brighton
Sun. Sept. 1 – Bristol, UK @ Lantern Hall
Mon. Sept. 2 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
Tue. Sept. 3 – Glasgow, UK @ Mono
Wed. Sept. 4 – Manchester, UK @ The Deaf Institute
Fri. Sept. 6 – Paris, FR @ L’Archipel
Sat. Sept. 7 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique
Sun. Sept. 8 – Rotterdam, NL @ Kantine Walhalla
Thu. Sept. 26 – Lafayette, LA @ Acadiana Center for the Arts
~ with special guest Kath Bloom
* with special guest Robin Holcomb
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